In 1841, Solomon Northup, a free black man from upstate New York, was drugged and kidnapped by slave traders. The next dozen years he spent working on a Louisiana plantation were recounted, after his rescue, in the autobiography “12 Years a Slave.”

Now an acclaimed film directed by the British artist-turned-director Steve McQueen (“Hunger,” “Shame”) has been made from Northup’s 1853 book. The harrowing insider’s look at the peculiar institution stars McQueen favorite Michael Fassbender as a particularly wicked cotton grower, Benedict Cumberbatch as one of Northup’s more enlightened owners, Brad Pitt as the Canadian abolitionist who tries to aid the captive citizen — and, most essentially, British actor Chiwetel Ejiofor (“Amistad,” “Dirty Pretty Things,” Starz’ new series “Dancing on the Edge”) as Northup and Kenyan actress Lupita Nyong’o, making her screen debut as the tormented slave Patsey.

The Los Angeles News Group spoke to Ejiofor, the son of Nigerian parents, and Mexico-born, Yale-trained Nyong’o about their deep immersion in the horrors of the antebellum South, how it relates to what they know of African colonialism and what it’s like to bring history to palpable, terrible life.

Q How much did you know about American slavery before getting involved with this movie?

Ejiofor: We didn’t study it at school, I don’t think. But in my own life, I wanted to find out about it, so I read about it in the West Indies, America, Africa, Nigeria — obviously, there’s a massive connection between Nigeria and the Bight of Benin and America. All of these things were a part of my teenage years. Then I had the opportunity of doing “Amistad” for Steven Spielberg, so I looked into it in a bit more depth there as well.

But this, somehow, is different from anything else. For me, it comes from a place that’s so deep within the slave experience. I hadn’t read anything like that before. I’d never understood the complications that could arise from trying to find a pen and paper or getting a bar of soap. I only suppose you can get that if you are reading somebody who’s been inside that experience, rather than a historical record or something.

Nyong’o: My family returned to Kenya when I was a year old. We did read world history and touched on American history in school, but honestly I don’t remember learning anything significant about slavery. I didn’t know how much I didn’t know until I was auditioning for this film. I feel like a lot of people feel that way, not just foreigners, but Americans alike. People don’t talk about slavery at the bar; it’s a part of history that for a very long time has been swept under the carpet.

As part of my research, I went to the Blacks in Wax museum in Baltimore. It’s a wax museum that gives you a general overview of African American history. One of the most shocking things I learned is that it was a common practice to make accessories out of the skin of slaves that were killed. There were wallets and bags, and they were prized possessions. If you killed a slave, you made a leather piece from their skin and it was a good luck charm. It was horrifying. Hor-ri-fy-ing.

Q With that in mind, was there any apprehension about going to shoot the film in Louisiana, sometimes on plantations adjacent to ones your characters worked?

Ejiofor: Before we began, people would say to me ‘Wow, you’re going to go down to the South and do this film about slavery. Are people going to be resistant to you doing that?’ And you go down there and nothing is further from the truth. People were very supportive of the process, of what we were doing. They were very sensitive to it. They would bring in their own, personal ideas about the history down there. Some of them were directly related to the plantation owners. They wanted their stories to be told and their histories to be spoken about, and to become part of the real conversation. There was so much support for the film; it was really a great experience.

Nyong’o: I wasn’t apprehensive about going to Louisiana. My initial apprehension came from feeling like I didn’t know whether I could do it. I was sure Steve was going to call me up and say he had made a mistake and he was firing me. So it was about managing my own imposter syndrome.

Louisiana is just so pregnant with history. It’s rich, you can feel the past present, especially on those plantations with the oaks that are over 300 years old and actually witnessed slavery. They shaded so many slaves, and so many slaves hung from them. You’re faced with that, and it was so important for us to film there because it took us that extra mile into character. And the heat is a personality of its own!

Ejiofor: Right from the beginning, everything that appeared to be complex or difficult had a sort of inverted effect. When we started, the first scene we were picking cotton in 108 degrees and absolutely no shade. So you’re immediately aware of the kind of heat and that sense of that, but that very quickly turns into something that you are able to put into what you’re doing. It is part of what connects you to Solomon, to the experience of the story that you are trying to tell. I felt that if I am struggling in this moment, then I am struggling in ways and for reasons that he would struggle with it.

Q I hope they at least put something nice between your neck and the noose for that interminable scene when Solomon is almost lynched.

Ejiofor: No, no, there was no nice thing. I had a safety line, of course, but it was as close as we could get — that’s what we wanted to try and do — to the real thing. For me, I wanted to feel it, just to to have a little sense of that. I’m aware of the context in which I’m doing it, so I’m not going to have exactly that terror. But just to have a sense of the physical nature of it, to be able to connect in that way, was so important. I mean, it’s not comfortable but it’s so necessary.

In a way, you’re always looking for permission to tell the story and when you’re going through moments like that, you feel like you’re earning your stripes.

Q Patsey earns different stripes — from a bullwhip — in another one of the film’s most brutal scenes. I’ve met Fassbender; he’s a lovely gentleman. I hope he was nice to you between takes, Lupita, considering the appalling things his character does to yours.

Nyong’o: Michael was precious, he was lovely. While we were shooting, the set was very sacred. We really didn’t have a very talkative creative process. But we created a ritual, without even knowing it, of just having a moment together, of making nice before and after the scenes. We’d just look at each other and hold hands, like we were going into this together, and then button the scene at the end with a hug and stuff.

We all enjoyed each other’s company. We had fun. We broke a lot of bread together. We went out, we danced a lot, we went Go-Karting and everything. It was an extremely fun set because we recognized the power of the story we were telling.

Bob Straus has been covering film at the L.A. Daily News since 1989. He wouldn't say the movies have gotten worse in that time, but they do keep getting harder to love. Fortunately, he still loves them.

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